FB-ISAO Partners with Patrick Henry College’s Strategic Intelligence Program

The Alliance Focuses on Analytical Reporting on Hostile Events, Related to the Dobbs Ruling, that Targeted Faith-Based Organizations

The Faith-Based Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (FB-ISAO) has been tracking hostile events since the early release of the Dobbs Ruling on 03 May 2022. In addition, the FB-ISAO issued multiple analytical reports on the topic. Members of the FB-ISAO shared open-source posts related to protests, threats, and attacks on both pro-life and pro-choice organizations.

“The FB-ISAO provides members with information, analysis, and capabilities to help reduce risk while enhancing preparedness, security, and resilience. We have seen an uptick in hostile events related to the Dobbs Ruling and think it is important to make our members and the community of faith aware of the threat much like we make our members aware of any, and all, threats across the all-hazards threat landscape.”

Mayya Saab, Executive Director, FB-ISAO

Since at least 2020, though there were certainly incidents before, and associated with the civil unrest related to multiple social movements, faith-based organizations were frequently targeted by protesters. Hostile events that were most frequently encountered include arson; graffiti (most often with pro-abortion messages); rocks and bricks thrown through windows; statues destroyed (often with heads cut off); thefts and general property destruction.

According to the Catholic News Agency, in June of 2022, the Department of Homeland Security warned the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops of “credible threats” against Catholic churches and clergy following the Dobbs Ruling. The National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) has specifically called out faith-based organizations as possible targets since 2022.”

In late 2022, the FB-ISAO partnered with the Patrick Henry College’s (PHC) Strategic Intelligence Program to develop more in-depth analytic reports based on data sets of the hostile events that multiple interested organizations have released as open-source data sets. For more information on Patrick Henry College, please visit phc.edu.

Some of the more robust data sets that were analyzed by the student-led team at PHC, were published by the Family Research Council and the CatholicVote.org. Other open-source data was also included in the analysis. The reports offer no opinion on the hostile events nor their perpetrators. They are solely meant to inform faith-based organizations, houses of worship, and charities of the incidents and law enforcement actions and are intended to assist the community with the development of preparedness initiatives in response to the hostile events.

The collaborative reports include an executive summary and information related to:

• Attack Timeline on Pro-Life Institutions
• Distribution of Attacks on Pro-Life Institutions
• Attacks by Organizations
• Attack Types & Watchwords Associated with Attacks on Pro-Life Institutions
• Attacks on Pro-Choice Clinics

“We are very thankful to help the Faith-Based Information Sharing and Analysis Organization in making this threat information available to its members. This is the type of hands-on experience in supporting real-world missions that sets our students and graduates apart.”

Dr. Gordon Middleton, Director, SI Program, Patrick Henry College

The reports have been made available to our members and partners through direct email distribution. To receive the reports and any future reports, faith-based organizations are encouraged to join the FB-ISAO as member organizations.

We are grateful to the student led team from Patrick Henry College. Their dedication to this project has been instrumental in making sure that the community of faith is made aware of the threat. If you have found the reports helpful, please consider making a donation that will provide the students with a stipend in recognition of their work. 100% of donated funds will be funneled directly to the students and the PHC Strategic Intelligence Program. Please make a donation here.